The Tis­s­a­phernes Archae­o­log­i­cal Research Group, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­ter for the Great Islam­ic Ency­clo­pe­dia, the Soci­ety of Iran­ian Archae­ol­o­gy, and the Iran­ian Stud­ies Asso­ci­a­tion, is host­ing the Nation­al Con­fer­ence on the Iran­ian World: Seleu­cid and Parthi­an Eras. This event, under the aca­d­e­m­ic direc­tion of Dr. Shahin Arya­manesh and Dr. Houshang Ros­ta­mi, will take place on Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 8, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM at the Cen­ter for the Great Islam­ic Ency­clo­pe­dia, locat­ed in Niavaran, Tehran. The con­fer­ence will com­mence with speech­es by dis­tin­guished Iran­ian schol­ars and cul­tur­al lead­ers, includ­ing:

• Seyed Moham­mad Kazem Boj­nour­di, Pres­i­dent of the Cen­ter for the Great Islam­ic Ency­clo­pe­dia
• Dr. Moham­mad Ebrahim Zarei, Pres­i­dent of the Research Insti­tute for Cul­tur­al Her­itage and Tourism
• Dr. Shahin Arya­manesh, Head of the Tis­s­a­phernes Archae­o­log­i­cal Research Group
• Dr. Mah­moud Jafari Dehghi, Pres­i­dent of the Iran­ian Stud­ies Asso­ci­a­tion
• Dr. Kourosh Moham­mad­khani, Pres­i­dent of the Soci­ety of Iran­ian Archae­ol­o­gy
• Dr. Hek­ma­tol­lah Malasale­hi, Pro­fes­sor of Iran­ian Archae­ol­o­gy

The con­fer­ence will explore diverse aspects of reli­gion, art and archi­tec­ture, cul­tur­al and social his­to­ry, new archae­o­log­i­cal dis­cov­er­ies, eco­nom­ics, liveli­hoods, and trade. Spe­cial empha­sis will be placed on archae­o­log­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal stud­ies of the Seleu­cid and Parthi­an peri­ods with­in the geo­graph­i­cal and cul­tur­al con­texts of the Per­sian Gulf, the Strait of Hor­muz, and the Makran Sea. Key top­ics to be addressed include:

• The iden­ti­ty and analy­sis of the bronze stat­ue from Sha­mi
• New­ly dis­cov­ered Parthi­an rock reliefs, with a focus on two exam­ples in the Kur­dis­tan region
• The reclin­ing fig­ure in Parthi­an art
• The Seleu­cid con­nec­tion to the Per­sian Gulf and its eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance
• The role of coinage in the Seleu­cid eco­nom­ic sys­tem and its fea­tures
• Geneal­o­gy and ori­gins of the first Parthi­an kings
• Wine-mak­ing struc­tures asso­ci­at­ed with the Seleu­cids in the Karaftu Cave
• Rit­u­al land­scapes of Sarpol‑e Zahab dur­ing the Seleu­cid and Parthi­an peri­ods

These top­ics offer a com­pre­hen­sive insight into the cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, and artis­tic trans­for­ma­tions of these two his­tor­i­cal eras. The con­fer­ence pro­vides a valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty for researchers and enthu­si­asts in Iran­ian his­to­ry and archae­ol­o­gy to engage with the lat­est find­ings and stud­ies on the Seleu­cid and Parthi­an peri­ods and to exchange ideas. The full con­fer­ence pro­gram is avail­able at the fol­low­ing link: